Name: The Code of the Extraordinary Mind
Rating: 4.2 (325 reviews)
Author: Vishen Lakhiani

What’s in it for me? Crack the code of your extraordinary mind.

The human mind is simply remarkable. It’s a vast source of cognition and reason that allows us to recall vivid memories, perceive what’s going on around us and cast judgments on our own and other people’s actions.

Even so, the mind is not necessarily programmed to maximize our happiness or contentedness in life. Rather, it can make us follow hopelessly old-fashioned rules and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation. But what if you could remove these restrictions and start fresh?

These blinks provide a thorough guide on how to avoid the pitfalls of your own mind. They use a framework based on the ten laws of extraordinary living, separated into four stages.

The first two rules focus on discovering how we are shaped by the world around us, while the next three help us understand how we can change our perception of the world. Laws six, seven and eight explain how we can create stronger mindsets, and the final two show us how we can employ these mindsets to change the world. Altogether, these laws take into account the complex code of the human mind and will guide you toward a more extraordinary life.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

what bullshit rules are, and why you should question them;
why someone can have an embarrassing past of wearing thick, ugly glasses and still be attractive; and
what it means to be unfuckwithable.

Transcend the culturescape and question society’s bullshit rules.

As we move through life, we’re constantly told what we should do or how we should live. Our culture contains a number of outdated beliefs that dictate what kind of job and education we should have and how we should dress and look.

Taken together, these beliefs make up today’s culturescape – a set of rules and norms on how to love, eat, marry and make a living.

But if you want to be extraordinary, the first law for an extraordinary life is to transcend your culturescape.

This is what the author realized he had to do. Until the age of 19, Vishen Lakhani lived in Malaysia, where it was the norm for families and teachers to push kids into becoming an engineer, a lawyer or a doctor. And since he was a smart student, he was told that these were the rules he needed to follow in order to succeed.

So, he went along with these expectations, giving up his hobbies of photography and performing arts to become a computer programmer. However, when he “succeeded” by landing a top job at Microsoft, he realized this wasn’t the life he was meant to lead – and he quit.

To stand out and become extraordinary, Lakhiani realized he needed to transcend his culturescape and selectively choose which rules to follow and which ones to ignore.

This leads us to the second law for an extraordinary life: question the bullshit rules.

A bullshit rule, or, to use the author’s terminology, a Brule, is an outdated rule from the culturescape that we blindly follow, even though it can hold us back from pursuing our dreams.

Take the College Brule, for example. Society tells us we need a college degree to guarantee success; but not only does a degree not guarantee us anything, it can actually hinder your success by weighing you down with massive student debts.

Steve Jobs questioned this Brule by dropping out of college and going on to become an extraordinary man. He didn’t need a degree to be a radical innovator, invent the smartphone and revolutionize multiple industries.

Extraordinary minds practice consciousness engineering and create self-encouraging models of reality.

What are the chances you still use a computer that runs Windows 95? Pretty small. You almost certainly care about your computer running efficiently, so you make sure to update the operating system every few years.

Well, this is the same kind of care that you should put into your mind as well.

Extraordinary minds upgrade their systems for living and are able to bend reality.

Naturally, when you revise your hardware’s model of reality, it means your software, as well as your actions based on these beliefs, must also be revised.

This leads us to the fifth law for an extraordinary life: upgrade your systems for living with a three-step approach of discovering, refreshing and measuring.

The final steps to becoming extraordinary are to be unfuckwithable and to embrace your quest.

All extraordinary people have goals. But their motivation for reaching them comes from within; they don’t seek validation from outside opinion, and their sense of self-worth and happiness are not attached to outside values.

This is the essence of the ninth law for an extraordinary life: be unfuckwithable.

Key ideas in The Code of the Extraordinary Mind

What is The Code of the Extraordinary Mind about?

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind (2016) unveils a method for overcoming the madness of everyday life, one that enables anyone to stand out from the pack and become an extraordinary individual. The author lays down ten laws that anyone can easily follow to experience a radical transformation and find meaning and happiness in each day.

About the Author

Vishen Lakhiani is a Malaysian-born entrepreneur. He’s the founder and CEO of Mindvalley, a company designed to educate and empower people, helping them reach their full potential. Lakhiani is a frequent speaker on improving business mindsets and company culture, and is also the founder of the Awesomeness Fest, a personal development event for entrepreneurs and authors.